One man was killed and two other people were wounded Monday afternoon in an apparent drive-by shooting that sprayed bullets into parked cars and sent residents of a Potrero Hill housing project scrambling for cover.

The shooting was reported about 3 p.m. in the 100 block of Dakota Street. Police said a vehicle drove by a line of parked cars when a suspect or suspects inside opened fire.

"It was pop, pop, pop and then boom, boom, boom," said Cindy Collins, who had been dropped off in the area to visit her sister just a few minutes before the shooting. Collins took cover behind a thick wall when the bullets flew. "I feel so blessed that I made it here. I wasn't looking at nothing. I just ducked behind this wall. That is so sad."

The San Francisco medical examiner's office identified the slain man as 27-year-old Steve Eubanks. But police did not release the names of two people, a man and woman, who were taken to San Francisco General Hospital for treatment of unspecified injuries.

Collins and other residents said Eubanks kept several cars in front of the housing project and had a young daughter.

"He was all right with me," Collins said.

Police roped off a large area with yellow crime scene tape and placed more than 40 orange cones to mark shell casings. At least three cars were hit by gunfire. It was unclear whether the victims were in one of the parked cars or outside on the street when the shooting happened. But one car, a small red Toyota, had every window shot out, its radio still blaring.

"That was my brother that got killed," a man said softly after speaking with inspectors. "I don't want to talk about this." Asked who he thought might be behind the crime, he responded, "I don't know -- probably some gang bangers."

Police sent a gang unit to the scene, but department spokeswoman Maria Oropeza said it was too soon to determine if the shooting were gang-related. Authorities were investigating the possibility that one of the weapons used was an AK-47, a powerful assault rifle used in several recent homicides in San Francisco.

Inspectors were pursuing several tips Monday night, including a description of a van that may have been used in the crime and a license plate number given to police by witnesses.

"It shouldn't have happened," said one woman who declined to give her name as she waited outside while a police officer examined a bullet lodged in her bedroom wall. "Too many kids be playing out here. It needs to stop, but I don't think it will."